Nov. 29, 2006

Yesterday when I got up and looked out to my back yard we had 3 inches of snow. Today we have a cloud cover that is letting it melt, in fact we now have about the same as is in the pictures.
Today I asked the post office to hold our mail. For some reason they don't like to hold it more than one month. We are going to be gone for 3 1/2 months. I was able to talk him into it for this year but will need to do something else next year.
no mail
no phone
dish on the lowest program
cars in storage for insurance
The only bill I have to worry about is Electric, and dish. Dish will be $30, Electric I hope will run less than $100. It will depend on how much the person we have here will use. We have a wood stove that has kept our bill down to $45. a month. He may not be into the wood heat. We will see.
The only thing I have going on right now, that needs to be taken care of after we are gone is the beef I have sold but is not ready to deliver.
I have a friend that will pick it up, and see to it that the person that bought from us will get it. It's just that the Beef is not as good as it should be, which means no steaks or roasts, the cost will be less for the buyer but right now I know she paid more than she should have for what she is getting. I won't be here to take care of everthing.
So I worry about things. I know my friend will take care of everything.

Snow

OK so there are two of each picture, at least I got them posted. As you can see we don't have much of a front yard, our back yard looks better but still needs work. can you see the waterfall? In the summer we have a small above ground pool in the back yard. No grass, as we have not got all the dirt moved from the front yard that we wanted moved. We have been up here for about 4 years and we have learned that if you want to do things on your own it takes time.

So this snow is what we woke up to this morning. We have been told we will get more before morning. That will be Tuesday. We were or are planning on leaving here at 2:30am Friday morning for the airport, 60 miles away. I will worry about the weather and us being able to get there, until we get there.

Mexico is going to be so nice.

Today I had my hair trimmed, hopefully it will be trimmed good enough for the hotter weather. Larry likes it long, I think I am getting to old to have long hair, and it is easier to keep up shorter. I have a freind that takes care of my hair at no charge. Larry thinks she does a great job and is happy with it.

Nov. 27, 2006

It had to happen, in 4 days we will be flying off for warm, sunny Mexico and what do I wake up to this morning but SNOW.
Took pictures but can't get them to download for this blog.

Lowering Bills at home

I called the phone company about putting our phone in vacation mode. Most states will allow you to do this. It drops the cost and you have your phone and phone number ready for you when you get back. Oregon does not allow phones to go on vacation. So I am canceling service for both lines. I have a line just for the computer. So there will be no phone bill while we are gone. But we will have to re-connect when we get back, a $25. hook-up fee and we may have to get a new number.
I also have dish for my TV. I called them and because I have a contract I can't put it on pause. But I can drop all extra programs which will drop that cost to $25.00.
So the only bills I will have while we are gone are electric and dish. Shouldn't ever be more than $100. a month.

9 days and counting

I have been waiting for my last check from the casino for 4 days. I called my boss yesterday when I did not receive it in the mail as I had asked. My last day at work was a week before the checks were to be paid. It has been four days after payday, which is 6 daays after the end of the pay period.
I went to the casino today for dinner and to see about my last check. For some reason they were holding it for me to collect. My boss must have made an error in how I was to get it. This did not really suprise me as he makes a lot of errors. Only with this one I could have gotten my last check a week ago. Oh well, I will deposit it in my bank, the stress is gone, both for my job and my last check.
Looking forward, 9 days and we will be jetting off to Mexico. Warm weather, warm water (seas) and lazy days.
When we left the casino tonight, after our dinner, I wanted to yell, my wonderfull feelling of freedom.
The things that I no longer have to do, I can wear jeans in the casino, coulden't while I worked there. I don't have to smile at everone, no matter what. Cought myself today as going in, smiling at people, saying welcome.
So now the only stress I have is about our trip, oh and the beef we are selling. The butcher is comming tomorrow, I am worried that he won't have the beef ready for us untel we are gone. Ok so the people that bought beef from us know that they will have to pick it up. but that also means that my friend will have to pick up ours and put bring it here. She will I just don't like to have to have her do it. The butcher just couldn't do it sooner.
Then there is the worry I have about this trip. I have not been away from home this long before. I know we are going to have a wonderful time. I will try to add to this blog when I can on this trip. I will add all costs. We do travel as cheep as we can.
8 days and counting.

Freedom

Free at last, free at last thank you, I am free at last.
Ok so it's just that I worked my last day at job today. My co-workers had it up on the white board, the countdown to my retirement. you know, 4 hours 30 minutes.
It was so great to walk out of there and know I did not have to return as a worker.
I received my first pension check this month. It is less then what I was making but it will be what we will need to pay the bills and to make a living.
We travel and live cheap any way.
On bad thing about this is we won't have health insurance for about 6 years. My pension check is smaller than what the cost of the insurance would be.
We have in the last 3 months had all the check-ups we needed to have. We have 90 days of our meds, and a list of the generic meds we will need to get when we run out of what we have. My husbands pills are more important than mine so I will see to it he has his pills.
As I have said before we are headed to Mexico in Dec. I will be getting the house ready for our time away. We will be putting my car and his truck on storage insurance for the time we are gone. The cost for this will be $70 for both for the 3 months we will be gone.
We will be setting our heat at 55 degrees (lowest we can do). The person that will be staying here will pay for any electric cost more than what we would normally pay.
My bills here at home will run around $250, for a month, all year. I am trying to see were I can cut that cost.
Free at last, free at last, thank God I am free at last!!!!!!

More Rain

Oregon is noted for it's rain.
I took last week off and have one day off this week. Which means I will have 3 days to work this week then I am on a permeant vacation, sort of.
The rain, the grey skys and the flooding are really getting to us. We have 3 more weeks of this then we are headed for the sunny, warm, areas of Mexico.
We have been working this last week to get most of the things we have been putting done. Sent in for our land adjustments today. Hope they don't need anymore information until we get back.
We worked on our fence lines to make sure our cattle will be ok.
We are also doing some deep cleaning, you know, if you can't see it it's ok and clean, like under the sink behind everything.
It has rained almost all week, the last two days have been record amounts, we have a small lake in our frount yard. We are not close to any large rivers so we won't get any real high water here, just what won't drain off the yard.
Not rainning right now but all we have to do here is wait, it will.

Retirement

This last week I have recived two notices from my retierment fund, both have given me differant dates to start getting my checks. They have been only 4 or 5 dollars differant. What worries me is the time, differance. One said my first check would be sent to me this month Nov 1, the secont one said it would be sent to me in 30 days. This retirement check will not be from the job I am leaving on Nov. 11.
I am leaving for mexico the 1st of Dec.
I am worried, will the money be deposited into my account as I asked it to?
I do have someone here that will be able to see to it that this is taken care of.